It turns out that the medical condition that the main character Nate, played by Jack Quaid called congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), is a real and very rare condition. Producing a movie about something like this is at the very least an extremely unique idea for an action movie. The downside of this is that Nate is stabbed, beaten, burned and almost killed nonstop throughout this movie.
Jack Quaid is the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan and has been acting in mostly small movie roles for around 13 years. Recently, Quaid has broken through with two recent lead actor roles, the last film “Companion” released in February 2025. The career path for someone like Jack Quaid, who has all of the contacts and opportunities within what can be high-paying field is always easier, for the most part avoiding the many years of waiting tables and hoping for that first miracle break that so few in Hollywood ever find in their lifetime.
As far as this story, it’s about a 30-year-old banker, Nate who falls in love with a co-worker, Sherry played by Amber Midthunder, and later tries to save her after she is kidnapped when three armed men rob the bank. While the story is simple, the many scenes of violence, and elaborate fight scenes Nate goes through to rescue Sherry are greatly enhanced because Nate can feel no pain. I thought the added problem Nate has with not being able to chew food (for fear of biting off his tongue) was too farfetched within this otherwise crazy action movie.
There is a surprise twist ending in this film that caught me by surprise and was very well done.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are, this time around an accurate 82% and I recommend this movie for the good acting and original idea.
In one of the most surprising and unexpected results in Oscar History the movie “Anora” won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, matching a record previously held by Walt Disney.
From the publication Wrap.pro: “Anora’s big triumph felt like less of a surprise and more of a crescendo to a campaign that started almost a year ago and had finally reached its natural conclusion. What makes this particular success story so staggering is how deliberate and methodical it was, as distributor Neon closely followed its own playbook — one that led Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” to historic Oscar success five years ago. Add in a deliberate decision to keep “Anora” off of streaming for the duration of its awards run, and you get a path to Oscar glory.”
As with the horrible Oscar winner “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (2022), Anora is the most recent example of the Oscar awards being rigged by a marketing campaign, that kept the best two movies for 2024, “A Complete Unknown” or the “Brutalist” from winning best picture.
From ChatGP”: “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) holds the record for one of the highest uses of the F-word in a feature film. The word is used 569 times throughout the movie, averaging about 2.81 times per minute. This count makes it one of the most profanity-laden films in cinematic history.” For the movie Anora, the F word is used 479 times, with the screenwriter and director Sean Baker most likely aguing: “This is now people in this world talk”. While this is a correct statement, this many F words are not necessary, over a two-hour movie, and seems more overkill than a screenwriter trying to be accurate with dialogue.
This story is about a young woman in her early 20s named Anora, played by Mikey Madison, who has no options to make a living, other than being employed in the sex worker industry. This includes working in a strip club, giving lap dances, and in some cases selling her body for sexual encounters. For any young woman who has a horrible life like this, constantly putting herself in danger of being beaten or murdered, with a suicide rate in the United States that is as high as 18% higher than the general population, this kind of reality can be more like like a slow death, than living.
Through a typical lap dance and conversations with a young Russian man, Ivan played by Mark Eydelshteyn, their relationship grows into a friendship and then a marriage in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Ivan’s parents are the head of a crime gang that sells weapons, and they do not approve of their son marrying someone they consider a prostitute. There are so many sex scenes between Ivan and Anora, that this movie at times can seem like a softcore porn movie, another example of over-the-top movie making trying to be different.
There is a huge fight scene that lasts at least 15 minutes in the middle of this film, where the Russian criminals employed by this gun-running company attack both Ivan and Anora in a mansion owned by Ivan’s parents. The fight in the mansion is violent with Anora screaming and struggling as she is finally bound and gagged. Her constant screaming becomes a major low point in this movie and like her never-ending F-words, is overkill. During the fight, Ivan runs away, and for a far too long period within this story, the Russian criminals and Anora later try to find Ivan, so that Ivan and Anora can get their marriage annulled.
As impossible as it is to believe that this movie won the Best Picture Oscar for 2024, there is no doubt that the acting is very good by all the actors, especially Mikey Madison. This movie succeeds in painting a picture of a young woman in her 20s trying to stay alive within an unbearable reality with an ending in a car with Mikey and one of the Russian criminals who kidnapped her, that summarizes Anora’s entire terrible life with a perfectly shot small scene.
There is no way that this picture should have received the Best Oscar and Original Screenplay Oscar for 2024, or received a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, but while never recommending this for children or anyone who hates nonstop foul language – because of the excellent acting only – I do recommend this film.
From a search on the internet “Between 2005 and 2018, the VA estimated over 89,000 veteran suicides, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For anyone with PTSD, due to any traumatic experience, it is almost impossible to explain what it is like. The inability to stop the constant pictures in your mind, replaying a horrible incident or injustice, leading in too many cases to insanity or for too many war veterans, suicide. Considering the large number of war suicides of recent war veterans, it has been obvious for many years that this country has not been taking care of the mental health of its veterans.
The new movie “My Dead Friend Zoe” is about two Afghanistan war veterans, Merit, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, and Zoe, played by Natalie Morales who become very close friends. Most of this movie is about the time after the war, with Merit traveling around to visit her grandfather Dale, played by Ed Harris, and attending PTSD meetings run by a therapist Dr. Cole, played by Morgan Freeman.
Merit is always traveling with her best friend Zoe, even though she died sometime earlier as Zoe is inside Merit’s imagination during this entire story. Merit is unable to resolve the fact that Zoe has died. Throughout this story, with the use of many flashbacks, we find out what happened to Zoe and why.
The acting throughout this entire production is first-rate, as well as the story, which is about friendship, loss, war, and PTSD. The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a very high 95%, and I agree with this rating and recommend this film.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 